For half an hour or more before each of its practices the last five seasons, the ASU gymnastics team felt more like vagabonds than collegiate athletes.
That time was spent piling into a cramped van and commuting to Desert Lights gymnastics training facility in Chandler, where the team held its practices from the 2001-2005 seasons.
"Traveling that far off campus, my kids were displaced from feeling like they were part of the athletic department," said ASU coach John Spini, who owns Desert Lights. "They lost that feeling of being around other athletes."
This season, however, the Sun Devils have their own home and some of the most luxurious athletic accommodations not only at ASU but the entire NCAA. The sparkling new John Spini Women's Gymnastics Training Center opened for the team's use in the beginning of January, just in time for the 2006 season.
"Just knowing it takes like three minutes to get here, and you can get your ankles heated up and taped and ready to go, it's nice," senior Ashley Kelly said. "We used to have to do that before we left, and it would get cold on the drive out there."
The facility could not have come soon enough for the Sun Devils.
For years, the gymnastics team practiced on campus at the old PE West annex. After that building's demolition in 2001, Spini said he was told a gymnastics facility was in the works and the team wouldn't be displaced for long.
"We were only supposed to be out a year," he said. "They were building us a facility, then 9/11 happened, and all the capital commitments were stopped."
To find a home for the gymnasts, the Arizona Board of Regents took bids from local gyms to host ASU practices. Spini, who opened Desert Lights in 1994 with his wife Lisa, suggested his gym as a candidate. The government first called it a conflict of interests, but Spini soon made an offer that couldn't be refused.
"We bid very low because I wanted to have control of the gym instead of someone saying to me 'okay, you need to put something back,'" he said. "My wife and I lost a little money [on hosting ASU practices] over the years because it was only supposed to be for one year."
Assistant coach Maggie Germaine, who competed for Spini from 2001-2004, said practicing off campus hurt ASU in recruiting in recent years. The team's new practice facility, however, is now expected to bolster recruiting.
"Just walking into this facility, letting these recruits know this is our gym, and we're a part of ASU, who wouldn't want to be a part of this?" she said. "It will help so much in recruiting. I can't wait to start."
The facility's ability to attract recruits can already be seen in the seven freshmen Spini has on his roster -- which ties his largest signing class ever -- who all were aware of the building's construction.
Freshman Nicole Harris, who was invited to try out for the 2004 USA Olympic team, said the new gym was one reason she wanted to come to ASU.
"This is a top of the line facility," Harris said. "There is not one piece of old equipment in it. Everything is brand new and everything is perfectly fit into place. It's the best facility, probably in the world."
The training center is located just north of Farrington Softball Stadium, south of Karsten Golf Course and east of Rural Road behind the football and marching band practice fields. The center cost $2 million.
The facility features multiple vaults, balance beams and sets of uneven bars as well as a permanent floor apparatus. The team also has its own locker room and sports medicine facilities. Giant ASU banners and pictures of the team's individual national champions, including Kelly, decorate the walls.
"Having this facility is like this," Spini said. "It's like I won the lottery, and it was an $800 million lottery, and it's like every morning I wake up thinking I'm in heaven. I am so happy I can't even put it into words. I walk through here and think I'm the luckiest man in the world."
ASU President Michael Crow, who toured the facility shortly after it opened, was impressed.
"It's a tremendous opportunity for Olympic sports to thrive here," said Crow, who was offered by Spini to host a birthday party for his children at the facility. "It's like having Gammage [Auditorium] for the orchestra. It's what we need to compete at the highest level."
Reach the reporter at christopher.drexel@asu.edu.
